From Values to Action


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Hardcover
210 pages
ISBN 9780470881255 Published April 2011
Jossey-Bass
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From Values to Action
The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership
By Harry M Jansen Kraemer 

Related Blog Posts
The 800-CEO-READ Bestsellers of 2012
Posted Dec. 31, 2012 5:41 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

We move a whole lot of business books around the world from our humble offices here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Each and every month, we compile our sales numbers and release a bestseller list to recognize the books that are heading out to businesspeople, business schools, and entrepreneurs to help spread ideas, solve problems, promote change, and inspire leadership in the business community. We’ve now compiled those numbers for the entire year, giving weight to both total sales numbers and how long each book stayed on the list (and at what number) and are happy to announce


the bestsellers of 2012.

  1. From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership by Harry M Jansen Kraemer, Jossey-Bass

  2. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful (Revised) by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, Hyperion Books

  3. New Power Base Selling: Master the Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition by Jim Holden & Ryan Kubacki, John Wiley & Sons

  4. Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business by Frances Frei & Anne Morriss, Harvard Business Review Press

  5. End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution by Brian Solis, John Wiley & Sons

  6. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick M Lencioni, Jossey-Bass

  7. Taking People with You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen by David Novak, Portfolio

  8. Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street by John Taft, John Wiley & Sons

  9. Relationship Economics: Transform Your Most Valuable Business Contacts Into Personal and Professional Success (Revised, Updated) by David Nour, John Wiley & Sons

  10. Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath, Gallup Press

  11. 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, & Jim Huling, Free Press

  12. Conversations That Win the Complex Sale: Using POWER MESSAGING to Create More Opportunities, Differentiate Your Solutions, and Close More Deals by Erik Peterson & Timothy Riesterer, McGraw-Hill

  13. Own Your Success: The Power to Choose Greatness and Make Every Day Victorious by Ben Newman, John Wiley & Sons

  14. Business of Being the Best: Inside the World of Go-Getters and Game Changers by Molly Fletcher with Justin Spizman, Jossey-Bass

  15. The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India by By Michael J Silverstein, Abheek Singhi, Carol Liao, & David Michael, Harvard Business Review Press

  16. The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon, John Wiley & Sons

  17. Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World by Gail F. Goodman, John Wiley & Sons

  18. The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann, Portfolio

  19. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen, HarperBusiness

  20. Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies by Jim Stengel, Crown Business

  21. The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin, The Penguin Press

  22. The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money by Carl Richards, Portfolio

  23. How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership by Marilyn Carlson Nelson with Deborah Cundy, McGraw-Hill

  24. Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired--And Secretive--Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky, Business Plus

  25. How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything (Expanded) by Dov Seidman, John Wiley & Sons

To see what thought leaders and business people are digesting and suggesting every month, you can follow The 800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller List on our website.



From Values to Action
Posted Jan. 9, 2012 12:42 p.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

"The National Leadership Index 2010, compiled by the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, showed that American's confidence in their leaders was 'significantly below average' for a third year in a row." From Values to Action, page 3.

"Significantly below average" probably significantly overstates the confidence we have in our leaders at the moment. But that statement, from the introduction to Harry M. Jansen Kraemer Jr.'s From Values to Action, touches upon why this book is critical. As a business executive who worked his way up a multibillion-dollar health care corporation to become its chairman and CEO, Kraemer's approach to leadership was naturally developed and tested in the real world for over 20 years—at no time more so than when a dialysis filter manufactured by his company in Sweden was blamed for the death of over 50 patients in Europe, an episode recounted in a 2002 Fast Company article entitled Harry Kraemer's Moment of Truth. From that article:

What did Harry Kraemer do? He did something that feels unusual—subversive, almost—in light of the air of mistrust and criminality that pervades big business. "When in the past nine months have you ever heard a corporate executive apologize?" marvels William W. George,* the recently retired CEO of medical-instrument maker Medtronic Inc. The answer: almost never.

*You may know Bill George from his own leadership books Authentic Leadership, True North and Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis.

Baxter's response to its filter crisis wasn't perfect. But Baxter's CEO owned up to the situation. He told the truth. He took responsibility when it would have been easy not to. His company took a $189 million hit, and he recommended that the board reduce his bonus. In other words, Kraemer did the right thing.

Now, being involved in any way in the deaths of over 50 people is certainly nothing to be proud of—quite the contrary. But acting with dignity, doing the right thing, accepting responsibility and making things right (as much as possible) in the midst of tragic events is something a company can take pride in. Contrast it to the shameful responses by BP, Halliburton and Transocean to the ecological disaster in the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, where absolutely no one would take responsibility and their are still fingers pointing and lawsuits flying in every direction.

And Harry Kraemer not only did the right thing in response to the tragic events in Europe, Kraemer did the right thing with regards to the company he led, recommending that his bonus and the bonuses of other company executives be reduced in response to the incident. Imagine for a minute Wall Street executives stepping up to take responsibility for the financial crisis and suggesting their bonuses be cut to to help re-capitalize the banks and repay the American taxpayer, or Congress asking for their pay to be docked until they could find a way to break through their legislative gridlock and put America back to work. The mere idea of our leaders sacrificing their pay, position or power, of their taking a hit for the greater good or taking a firm stand for what seems so obviously right, is so nearly unfathomable that it has been the realm of Hollywood since Mr. Smith went to Washington. Mr. Kraemer suggests, and has proven, that we can lead with our values and a sense of decency in the everyday—even if the day rarely has a Hollywood ending.

Since leaving Baxter in 2004, Kraemer has refined this values-based approach to leadership into a teachable formula as part of the staff at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and From Values to Action outlines that approach for the rest of us. He has boiled it down to four very human and close-to-the-ground principles: Self-Reflection, Balance, True Self-Confidence, and Genuine Humility. These are seemingly simple principles, but they can be hard to live. It amounts to "doing the right thing rather than being right," which means setting aside one's ego, questioning and considering all approaches and angles even if they seem antithetical to you, and still having enough sense of self to make a determined decision and stand behind it.

It also means taking responsibility if that decision doesn't lead to the desired outcome or when something goes wrong, even if you can sweep it easily under the rug or find someone else to blame. It is during these difficulties—what Kraemer labels the three 3C's of Change, Controversy and Crisis—that your leadership becomes most important, that doing the right thing matters most. Even when it's hard, especially when it's hard, those around you—whether they be family members, teammates, co-workers, employees or constituents—need you take up the mantle of responsibility rather than shirk it, to address problems head-on instead of covering them up or deflecting blame. It is in those times, times like these, that it is especially important hold your head high and maybe even stick your neck out a little, to do the right thing not only for your own integrity, but for the integrity of the entire organization and everyone in it. As Harry Kraemer said way back in 2002 when he was interviewed by Fast Company:

Leadership is a delicate blend of self-confidence and humility. You have to have the self-confidence ... But self-confidence without humility becomes a problem. I may be the CEO. But part of that was having a few skills, and part of it was luck. Part of it was the man upstairs. So I'm no better than anyone else. Self-confidence and humility: Blend those two together, and you have someone who has a good chance of leading effectively.

Ninety-nine percent of people want to do the right thing. I've got 48,000 employees, most of whom care about the environment, or they have parents, or they are parents. I'm representing them. I've got 48,000 people who assume that we're going to do the right thing.

Wouldn't it be nice if all of our leaders felt the same way? I'm not as naive to think that "the right thing" is always an easy thing to find, but I am naive enough to think that we can at least try.



The Bestsellers of 2011
Posted Dec. 31, 2011 5:10 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

2011 was the second year that Inc. magazine partnered with us to spread the word on what books are leaving our warehouse in great numbers every month, heading out to businesspeople and their organizations to solve problems, promote change and inspire leadership. We've now compiled the Inc./800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller numbers for the entire year, giving weight to both total sales numbers and how long each book stayed on the list (and at what number). And, for the second straight year, Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath has topped the list. Here are the rest of


the bestsellers of 2011.

  1. Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath, Gallup Press

  2. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, Hyperion Books

  3. From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership by Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jossey-Bass

  4. Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself by William C. Taylor, William Morrow & Company

  5. The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk, HarperBusiness

  6. What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential by Robert Steven Kaplan, Harvard Business School Press

  7. How to Market to People Not Like You: "Know It or Blow It" Rules for Reaching Diverse Customers by Kelly McDonald, John Wiley & Sons

  8. Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg & John David Mann, Portfolio

  9. Make It in America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy by Andrew Liveris, John Wiley & Sons

  10. Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Plata Publishing

  11. Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us about Innovation by Frans Johansson, Harvard Business School Press

  12. The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social by Jay Baer & Amber Naslund, John Wiley & Sons

  13. Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines—And How It Will Change Our Lives by Miguel Nicolelis, Times Books

  14. From the Jungle to the Boardroom by Mike Monahan, Beacon Publishing

  15. Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Business Plus

  16. Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage by Scott Keller & Colin Price, John Wiley & Sons

  17. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Broadway Business

  18. Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence by Tim Sanders, Tyndale House Publishers

  19. Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, Hyperion Books

  20. Relationship Economics: Transform Your Most Valuable Business Contacts Into Personal and Professional Success (Revised, Updated) by David Nour, John Wiley & Sons

  21. It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by D. Michael Abrashoff, Warner Books

  22. The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin, The Penguin Press

  23. Look at More: A Proven Approach to Innovation, Growth, and Change by Andy Stefanovich, Jossey-Bass

  24. Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business and Life by Stefan Swanepoel, John Wiley & Sons

  25. The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't by Kenneth L Fisher with Jennifer Chou & Lara Hoffmans, John Wiley & Sons

To stay up to date on what businesses and business leaders are reading, whether it's address a specific problem, build teams, deepen their knowledge or enlighten the way their entire organization thinks, subscribe to the RSS feed for The Inc./800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller List.



Introducing the Candidates: Leadership, Management
Posted Dec. 22, 2011 2:45 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog

Over the course of this week, we will be introducing, by category, the candidates for the 2011 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. Even though only one of the candidates can win the big prize, good business books deserve an audience, and perhaps one on this list will be the winning book..to you.

Today, we take a look at the candidates in two categories, Leadership and Management.

Leadership

So which book is going to win the Leadership and the Management categories and be in the running for the 800-CEO-READ Best Business Book of 2011? We'll announce the shortlist and winner in January!

Stay tuned!




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